THE BLOGOSPHERE ERUPTS – The Great YouTube Purge of 2006

We’ve reported it here, and reports are coming in from allovertheColbertophileoverse (and our sister communities who support The Daily Show) about the yanking of the Colbert/Stewart clips off of YouTube. Now the mainstream blogosphere has created a title wave of posts with detailed reports on how the Google purchase of YouTube is going to affect the site, and are using the Colbert/Stewart/Southpark purge as an example of what is to come with YouTube.

I received a couple of emails from YouTube this afternoon notifying me that a third party (probably attorneys for Comedy Central) had made a DMCA request to take down Colbert Report and Daily Show clips. If you visit YouTube, all Daily Show, Colbert Report and South Park clips now show “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.”

I claim no special expertise in the area of Copyright Law, but to this eye, YouTube’s action, which closely follows its acquisition by Google, appears unquestionably lawful, and perhaps, comes surprisingly late in the day.

While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the ease of access to these materials, I’ve often wondered why these videos were so readily available, without contest by the networks, on numerous blogs and video sites online.

I received a couple of emails from YouTube this afternoon (see below) notifying me that a third party (probably attorneys for Comedy Central) had made a DMCA request to take down Colbert Report and Daily Show clips. If you visit YouTube, all Daily Show, Colbert Report and South Park clips now show “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.”

For a long time, Comedy Central has passively allowed the sharing of online clips of its shows—because let’s face it, it’s helped them generate the kind of water cooler talk that has made them a ton of money. In this Wired Interview , Jon Stewart and Daily Show Executive Producer even encouraged viewers to watch the show on the Internet:

Karlin: If people want to take the show in various forms, I’d say go. But when you’re a part of something successful and meaningful, the rule book says don’t try to analyze it too much or dissect it. You shouldn’t say: “I really want to know what fans think. I really want to understand how people are digesting our show.” Because that is one of those things that you truly have no control over. The one thing that you have control over is the content of the show. But how people are reacting to it, how it’s being shared, how it’s being discussed, all that other stuff, is absolutely beyond your ability to control.

Stewart: I’m surprised people don’t have cables coming out of their asses, because that’s going to be a new thing. You’re just going to get it directly fed into you. I look at systems like the Internet as a convenience. I look at it as the same as cable or anything else. Everything is geared toward more individualized consumption. Getting it off the Internet is no different than getting it off TV.

But apparently, all good things come to an end when there is money and attorneys involved. I assume the only online clips that will remain will have to qualify under fair use – probably short clips, with social or political importance.

Up until the purchase by Google YouTube only flirted at the edge of the DMCA because there was no real incentive for copyright holders to pursue anything more than the occasional take down notice because YouTube had no income for anyone to gain from; but that all changed with the purchase by Google.

I can just imagine the woodies that started the day the main stream media lawyers heard of the purchase confirmation. YouTube now had some very deep pockets to threaten. Now it was worth throwing the weight of DMCA notification around; and as such the second most popular graphic on YouTube became “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.”

Let me ask you people a simple question: How much money do you pump into your marketing department annually? I mean, what’s your budget for marketing executives, their minions and external network marketing? Can’t you recognize that whatever percentage you had set aside for TDS and TCS brand awareness (not specific show promos, just awareness campaigns) was becoming a waste of money with the YouTube fans doing our thing? We were doing your jobs for free and doing it better than you ever could have done it yourself!

Exhibit 1: The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are all over the internet, and Stephen Colbert talks about his YouTube popularity on the show. It’s the internet buzz that everyone on television wants for their own show.

Well…everyone except the folks who run the Comedy Central channel.

…

I can understand the case for South Park. They sell the South Park seasons on DVD. As I write, the 8th season is in the top 200 of all DVDs sold on Amazon. If all the best parts of South Park are available free on YouTube, who will buy the DVDs?

But when it comes to the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, are they insane? What else are they going to do with the old episodes? It’s current events television. Nobody wants to even watch last year’s episodes on TV, let alone buy DVDs full of the stuff. Amazon has only one listing for Daily Show DVDs, and that’s for the Indecision 2004 Special

It’s a sad day in comedy on the Internet, as Comedy Central (A Viacom company) has ordered a DMCA takedown of their TV content from the popular video sharing website YouTube. This will leave dead YouTube links on thousands of blogs, possibly even my own ( I haven’t checked yet), and reduce the value of YouTube considerably. Google may find they spent about a $1Billion too much on YouTube, when they bought it a couple weeks ago for $1.4B.

That is only South Park; you also have Steven Colbert who has lawmakers very wary about participating on Colbert’s sarcastic skit “Better Know a District.” And let’s not forget about his performance as featured speaker at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

It that were the case, then why would Comedy Central punish for the sins of “South Park” and “The Colbert Report”? Jon Stewart did increase his ratings for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” after he hosted the Oscar. In fact, his new episodes averaged 1.6 million total viewers per night.

I don’t think that is the reason YouTube removed all the clips from Comedy Central.

It most likely has to do with Google’s recent purchase of YouTube. Earlier this month, Google purchased YouTube for “$1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction.” Google claims nothing will change with YouTube and that they will continue to “operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.”

Well, the hits are coming thick and fast at YouTube — or GooTube, or whatever we’re calling it now. According to one report, YouTube has responded to another takedown notice, this time from Comedy Central, and has removed all the South Park, Colbert Report and Daily Show video clips (other than ones of a few minutes or less, which presumably might fall under fair use provisions of copyright law — Mark Kuznicki has more on that here).

Click on most of the links to Comedy Central clips on YouTube and you’ll get the message, “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation” or “This video has been removed due to copyright infringement.” NewsCloud reports that YouTube says it’s been asked by a “third party” (which would be Comedy Central, since it’s the copyright holder) under terms of the DMCA to remove clips of the Colbert Report and the Daily Show. Both shows haven’t had an issue with YouTube, well, at least before the Google acquisition. In fact, the Colbert Report has used YouTube in its green screen challenge. And Stephen Colbert has mentioned the site so many times on the air, he recently joked that he was owed $700 million in licensing fees. YouTube has been thriving with Comedy Central content — probably the most widespread TV brand on the site — so this will be the most noticeable content removal to date. And it’s interesting to point out that Comedy Central — a Viacom unit — appears not to be going along with CBS’ strategy of forming a strategic partnership with YouTube.